Dan Hooker vows to break ‘new toy’ Michael Chandler

Former three-time Bellator MMA lightweight champion Michael Chandler signed with the UFC in September. He was the backup fighter should either lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov or challenger Justin Gaethje drop out of the UFC 254 main event; potential opponents publicly discussed since included Tony Ferguson, Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, and Dustin Poirier.

However, Chandler will make his UFC debut vs. Dan Hooker in the co-main event of UFC 257 on January 23 on Fight Island, Abu Dhabi. During a recent appearance on SCMP MMA’s Post Fight podcast, Hooker, ranked #6 in the division, talked about it.

I think they were trying to get other people to take the fight is what the hold up was, said Hooker, laughing. I heard real early on that they were trying to get Gaethje to take it. And then when Dana announced the fight Dana announced it like, ‘We were trying to get Oliveira to take the fight but he didn’t take it so now Hooker’s taking it.’ And then people asking me, ‘Oh, so it’s short notice?’ Nah bruv, I’ve been in camp for a while. I’m coming in ready for this. I got approached about this fight a while back.

I think they just wanted to get him to a title shot as quickly as possible. Anyone that’s been following the sport for a good amount of time knows that the danger lies in time. Father time in this sport is not your friend. You know what I mean? They want him to come in and look like the man, you know? So if he comes in, he whitewashes a top-five, top-four, top-three opponent, then people will start going, ‘Title shot, title shot, title shot.’ Because like 95 percent of people that watch it are lazy. They’ll only watch the highlight reel in the buildup to the fight so they’ll be like, ‘Whoa, he’s a former champ in another organization? He came in and beat a top-five. Now he’s fighting for a title!’ They’re not gonna actually go back and watch his fights. There’s like five percent of people that really study the sport and really watch the sport and really research the sport.

The danger lies in getting to the top five. If you were to put him against anyone else who’s come up in the UFC, like top-50, then a top-30, then a top-20, then a top-15 then his chances of losing skyrocket exponentially. So the quicker they can get him to a title, the quicker they could market and sell him. So to me, you’re gonna give me the new toy? I’m gonna break the new toy real quick. They invested a whole lot of money to get this guy out of his contract and get him over to the UFC and they’re gonna throw him in with me who’s like a bad stylistic matchup and I’m gonna break the toy in five minutes. I can’t say I feel sorry for them.

They showed that by putting him as the backup for the title, how much stock the UFC puts in him. They made sure that he’s on the McGregor undercard. So these are two of the biggest fights for the lightweight division and they’re putting him as close as they can. That shows what it is. That shows that he’s in the mix and if I go out there and demolish him, then I’m back in the mix.

h/t Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting